Brad Warner’s Asessment of Genpo’s Disrobing

So I just read this piece by Brad Warner on his reaction to Dennis Genpo Merzel’s stepping down as a Zen priest and resigning his status within the White Plum Asanga. First, while they are small matters, Warner did not have his facts quite right in two important areas. One is that KC Gerpheide was not being groomed to be Genpo’s successor—she is a successor of his. She’d underwent shiho with Genpo in December of 2009. The second is that it was lovers in the plural, not lover. While all of the women he’d had relations with were not specified when he informed the sangha in Ameland, it was definitely plural.

I disagree with Warner on many points. Like that matters! I actually think it’s a good thing that Big Mind™ is now becoming secularized and separate from what was once Kanzeon Zen Center (and is returning to that namesake now). For the group there, a return to Zen practice that is unaffiliated with the controversial technique is a positive and will help the place regain any credibility it may have lost during the years that Big Mind™ reigned supreme. For Genpo, I get the feeling he was a bit tired with the role of Zen priest and had other pursuits that he was interested in. We may criticize those pursuits for being overtly commercial but, in the end, this break will likely prove good for him, as well. As a secular technique, if it truly does disaffiliate with Zen Buddhism, it isn’t such a horrible thing, really.In the end, what is happening will likely prove best for all parties involved.

I don’t think it’s helpful to weakly downplay the ramifications of sexual relations between a teacher and student and dismiss that as a true ground for people taking issue with his actions. As Brad rightly points out, there are reports of fiscal extravagances as well and, absolutely, these are equally as troubling. But the sexual relationships are usually a metaphor in these sangha breakdowns. It is similar to the situation with Richard Baker years ago, who reportedly led an extravegant lifestyle enabled, in large part, by the hard work of members within his sangha working at Green’s Restaurant and the like. Sexual misconduct is often the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I am glad that Brad brought up the relations he had, which was chronicled in one of his books, with a student who now wasn’t a student. What was disappointing is that he minimized that and backpedaled on what the book had originally revealed (in rather graphic tones, at that, mocking the book Shoes Outside the Door by Michael Downing in the chapter title). He states the woman in question wasn’t a formal student and only showed up a few times. That is like a therapist saying, “The patient wasn’t really a patient. She never filled out the right paperwork. Sure, we had a few sessions, but that was the extent of it.” The consensual aspect is tiny. The mutual attraction can easily arise—a given. But a professional does not cross that boundary under any circumstances. If a counselor were to have sex with a patient who only showed up a few times, as his defense, they would be placed on probation and most likely stripped of their license altogether. The ethical guidelines in professional fields are very, very clear on such conduct.

Which brings us to the heart of what happened, why it pisses people off, and why sex is always an issue when it comes to teacher and students (note the power differentiation in those two words as they are). Are Zen teachers exempt from the ethical guidelines we expect from other professions? Is Zen not, in it’s deepest sense, in the helping profession? What is becoming more clear to many these days is this: There may need to be a system constructed that acts as an ethical board for sanghas throughout the United States. There aren’t enough to be state-by-state boards but there is room for a national board. Let sanghas opt in on whether they will become members and, for those who opt out, prospective students can look to that absence as a potential red flag. Would the system be perfect? No. No system ever is. Will it miss the tiny nuances and details that make each situation unique? Perhaps, though if each member were a serious Zen practitioner there would be more sober perspectives than there might otherwise be. I truly believe we need to have a zero tolerance rule for sexual relations between teachers and students. Yes, Zen teachers are humans. They make mistakes. So are doctors and therapists. They make mistakes, too.

About Adam Kō Shin Tebbe

Adam Kō Shin Tebbe (Kō Shin meaning Shining Heart) is editor at Sweeping Zen and is a blogger for Huffington Post's Religion section, writing mainly on topics of interest to Zen practitioners. Before starting the website in 2009, Adam trained to be a chemical dependency counselor. Adam is currently working on a documentary on Zen in North America (titled Zen in America) with a projected release date of 2017.

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7 comments

Interesting. I agree with neither of you. It seems most true to say that sex between teacher and student is powerful and intimate. It amplifies both the good and the harmful aspects of the relationship. There is something egoic about trying to protect ourselves from these aspects of life with hard and fast rules. It can be abused, sure. It can also be where some need to go, with the right teacher, it seems to me, however unfashionable it is to say such things. Few teachers can hold such a teaching, but sone can. I assume Genpo cannot since he has admitted his misconduct.

I also don’t like the discussion around alpha male sexual appetites being common in those who start groups with the sort of energy that Genpo has. Rather than being related, it seems to me, these are one and the same energies. As a group matures and becomes community focussed there is a need to repress the very energy that started it and the king is killed. I don’t see blame for the king or the group. It’s just how life works. The best we can do is treat all with compassion while it happens. I half suspect that Roshi is drowning himself like the ferryman teacher in the koan – removing himself from Kanzeon for the sake of the future of the dharma.

There are two groups of Zen teachers that are working actively to address these issues and set up standards for ethical conduct. They are the SZBA (Soto Zen Buddhist Association) and the AZTA (American Zen Teachers Association). Both hold the premises that Zen teaching is a profession, that what we do and say can have great impact on students (just as what a doctor or therapist says or does). We get bogged down when we discuss how to sanction a teacher who has violated the standards, how to assure that they have changed and are safe to teach again, and how/when to welcome them back in the organization. The SZBA is newer, and is also working to set up guidelines for training Soto Zen priests in the US. The AZTA has attempted interventions in the past when Genpo was involved in previous ethical violations.

“a professional does not cross that boundary under any circumstances. If a counselor were to have sex with a patient who only showed up a few times, as his defense, they would be placed on probation and most likely stripped of their license altogether. The ethical guidelines in professional fields are very, very clear on such conduct.”

But this is not just a question of professional norms. Merzel’s repeated adultery violated precepts he had taken and, presumably, given to many students. He is, I expect, disrobing in part as a means of honoring those vows.

This isn’t just an issue for clergy. I have sometimes felt that ethical practice gets only lip service in discussions of Buddhist practice. I don’t mean that Western Buddhists behave badly. Rather, the task of conforming your life to your vows is treated as an _entirely_ personal manner. Or, sometimes, as a less serious, ‘hinayana’, component of practice, compared to meditation or wisdom.

The relationship between teacher and student is hierarchical. Just as with a doctor and patient, therapist and client, police and the general public … no matter how long the relationship has ended the student will always perceive the teacher as more “powerful”. This is especially true if the student has emotional problems. In my observation, many students fall into that category, otherwise they wouldn’t be looking for a place to bring them some peace. How can they then, turn down advances from somebody whom they have on a pedestal.

It’s interesting to me that a representative of the AZTA should make it look as though they were active in trying to do something about Genpo. I contacted several teachers who are members over the last few years, to alert them to what Genpo was doing – and that includes hate campaigns undertaken through his front man Bruce Lambson, deliberately lying about past students, pretending that he hadn’t ordained monks who spoke out about him and of course the ongoing sexual misconduct with several students. The reply was virtually the same in every case and amounted to being told not to criticise Genpo and that he was a famous Zen ‘master’ who wouldn’t behave like this. In other words, I and others who spoke out were labelled as liars.

If there were interventions, why weren’t they made more public? Why were students and prospective students allowed to carry on under the delusion that Genpo was a good teacher, if it was known that at best he was problematic? It seems to me that lip service was paid to the idea of ethics by the AZTA and that nonsense therapies like big mind and the abuse of the student teacher relationship, not to mention Genpo’s obvious personal greed (three houses?) were allowed to carry on not only without any real action being taken but with an active disregard that indirectly at least condoned what this man was doing in the name of Zen. What is the AZTA going to do about this and how is the White Plum Asangha in particular going to make those who have been damaged by Genpo whole?

I was happy to read the message from Jan Chosen Bays.
I spent a few years of my life practising with Genpo.
What I have seen are things that I am sure are present in other zen centres (I sincerely hope not all). Incredible lack of awarness about how harmful the relationship with the teacher may turn out to be, and lack of willingness to learn about it. A belief that whatever the teacher does is right and HELPFUL for the student, and if the student does not agree, she/he is either stupid or resistant. I believe it may open up a very dangerous dynamics in the realtionship.
Since a teacher is surrounded by people dependant on him/her, this dependancy can very easily (and often unconsciously) open harmful dynamics, too. It is absolutely amazing that future teachers do not go through tranings preparing them to deal with other people’s dependancy in a healthy way. It is dangerous.

I believe it is very urgent to adress these and other questions concerning abuse of power, for the sake of people who practise.
Since no teacher is a perfect being, there should be a system protecting the students from the ‘big’ imperfections because it is often people who are already fragile who get more damaged.

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